Told The Teacher Last Night

[DisneyObsessive]

My mother took us out for december just before xmas when i was in 6th grade (my brother was a jr in high school). The HS was fine with it just said he'd have to do some make up tests when he came back, but my 6th grade teacher was off for a bit cuz she was ill so we had a substitute (our science teacher) and she forced me to bring a whole weeks worth of work down. Had my text books and all.

My mom was kind of annoyed, and it sure was a bummer to have to head back to the hotel every night and do homework. But at least i got to go in the end!

 

[DisneyLiz44]

I know many people are concerned about what the teacher is going to say when they are told you are taking your kid(s) out of school to go to WDW. My parents always took us out for a week. There are several reasons why I need to go in September so I've planned it around a school day off and she will actually only miss 3 full days. Two one week and one the following. That being said, I was still uneasy about approaching the teacher, especially since this trip is a surprise for my daughter. At open house last night I mentioned the trip, the days she was going to miss and said I would gladly take work with us for her to do. This is what she said "Oh please, I don't send work on vacation. Have fun. Unless you want to bring me too and I can give her some lessons while on line." So it went very well and I wanted to share.

OK, so I could have posted this thread !! I am from Long Island and looks like we are going at the same time 9/24-9/29. I told both my sons teacher's Monday night at open house and received the same reaction. Our trip is a surprise too so I wanted to give the teachers the absent notes now and not have to risk sending them in with my boys. I even had to give a note to the principal who "unofficially" gave her blessing.

 

[sydconmom]

LOL!! Our teachers said the same thing at parent night about our upcoming trip around days off too!

Its the hockey coach I hate telling, the teachers are a piece of cake!! LOL!

 

[Eeyoreloverforever]

They are there to give our kids an education, that is it!!! I am the child's parent and I will decide when we go on vacation, what she eat, what she wears, and what her morals should be.

We are HUGE on education in our house, but that doesn't mean that school should be allowed to rule my life.

Older dd is in grade 6 this year, with a strict teacher and she is worried about what the teacher will say. She told the class on the first day that if they were to go on vacation they had to take homework with them. Dh and I are still discussing this as I disagree with homework. I feel it is just stuff to keep them busy. They should be learning and practicing in school, that is what I send them there for. I am all for her learning things she missed while away, I would even hire a tutor if I had to, but I am not doing homework just for the sake of doing homework.

We leave in 3.5 weeks so I guess dh and I better work this out soon. LOL

I have no problem telling the teacher that she will not be taking homework with her. I am sorry if our vacation plans interfered with her teaching plans, but what is she going to do with all the kids who miss a week because of swine flu?

If she would like to give me the work that dd doesn't already know and ask me to make sure she learns it, that I don't have a problem with.

 

[Darcy03231]

I'm surprised people get trouble taking their kids out in elementary school - they don't really miss all that much... unless it's near state-test time.

But I never had any trouble getting out in high school either. We went the week after the long Thanksgiving weekend, so I would do all my homework over Thanksgiving break, and then turn it in when I got back.

And I was in all Advanced Placement classes too! So as long as you give them notice and ask about homework, they really can't do anything about it.[/QUOTE]

Actually, depending on your district's policy there is something they can do about it. Not give/accept makeup work and the student gets all zeros! Also, depending on how many unexcused absenses you have you could fail the class, no matter what your grade is. Our district has a strict policy and its further compounded by the fact we have block scheduling so missing one day of school is like missing two. While its great that you were able to do it, not all district polices are the same.

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

It is harder in middle and High School. There are more teachers and more material given. Teachers may be fine but it is just too much pressure on a kid to make up for all missed days. I took my DD out in May, never again, she had to do so much HW after we were back. Her grades did not change but she was under lots of pressure.

Yeah, that's what we think would happen next year. We've been looking at doing the "leave friday after school, get there friday night, stay sat sun, leave monday afternoon (assuming there's a monday off like Columbus Day).

We're also thinking of doing DCL for a while, after all, the boat has a maximum capacity, right? So we could still cruise over summer break and enjoy ourselves...

 

[MineMail]

In the UK you can be taken to court and fined for taking your children out of school for a holiday - how mad is that?! Do they do that in the US?

A lot of people do.

I'm curious: what type of schedule does the UK school year follow? Here in the US, we have traditional (Aug/Sep to May/June) and year-round schools. They both have (appx) the same number of teaching days, it's just distributed differently.

I don't pull my kids out of school for vacations, but I have for family funerals that are a distance away. (We don't have a good overnight childcare situation.) They're still a little miffed that I went to WDW solo without them (DH stayed home) earlier this year, but they had year-end tests to complete.


I have teacher friends who feel it's an imposition to ask them to prepare "while you're away" packets for kids taking a vacation. They're a little vengeful, "forgetting" to give vacationing students worksheets that affect their grades, leaving out homework assignments, etc.

It was eye-opening for me to hear them tell me that - I think they should just treat it the same way they handle kids who are out sick. Who knows? Maybe they do the same things to the sickly kids. Either way, it's wrong.

Your best bet is to make friends with another parent/child in the classes and ask for copies of the notes and homework that was missed.

 

[auntfrannie]

I don't understand why a kid missing a week of school will ruin their chances of success for the rest of their lives!! Reminds me of the movie Baby Boom with Diane Keaton when she firsts gets Elizabeth and the other moms are telling her if she doesn't get into the right preschool she has no chance of getting into the right college!

Kids have waaay too much homework these days. I'm glad I'm not a kid!

 

[jamstew]

In the UK you can be taken to court and fined for taking your children out of school for a holiday - how mad is that?! Do they do that in the US?

In some states, yes, it can happen.

 

[glo]

As a teacher and a parent I have to agree that we can't always take the family vacation during school vacations. Valuable family time and making memories in my book trump almost anything. Your kids are learning things that I could never teach in a classroom. I also have to agree that teacher's really do not have any say in the matter if the district or town you live in his a policy on this. It is a tough decision to make and each person has to do what they think is best.

 

[tarak]

Our school district has a policy that you can take up to 5 days for an educational trip - I do think that we can make the Animal Kingdom and a lot of the activities at the AKL educational (especially since my older daughter is only in 1st grade - her homework at this point consists of pretty simple math and reading). They won't approve a trip the first two weeks of school or the last week of school. I sent in my request the second day of school (Aug. 27th). Still haven't gotten the approval. We're going anyway - I'll wait until next Monday and if I haven't heard by then, I'll call the school. This will likely be the only vacation they will take with their grandmother, so even if it's denied, we're going.

 

[JDietz40]

We have taken our DS out of school several times although not since he has been in HS. We have had good luck with just about all of the teachers but had one bad experience. When he was in 5th grade the teacher did not like that we were going on vacation during the school year and loaded DS up with homework. We had to bring an extra suitcase just for the books and school supplies.

We are fortunate that DS has always been a good student and he started working on his homework on the plane to Orlando. The evening that we arrived we had no plans so we ate at B&C since we were staying at the BC and then went back to the room and he continued to work on homework. We arrived at WDW on Saturday and by Sunday evening DS had spent at least 15 hours on homework without complaining.

Amazing even for a good student. About the time that DW and I were ready to tell him that he had done enough homework and he was on vacation he announced that he was finished.

The longer that he worked on homework the angrier that I got.

I took out my frustration by sending all of the homework to his teacher via UPS overnight on Monday morning. I did not care about the cost I was making a point.

Our trip was in early November and when DS returned to school he basically sat there until after christmas break as he had done all of this work during our vacation.




John

 

[poohtoyou]

We are leaving the 24th of September and my 10th grade daughter will be out of school for 6 days. I feel bad for her but she knows she has to do double work when she gets back. She gets as many days as she was out to make up the work. Call me a bad mom? No just a Disney mom who is letting her daughter celebrate her 15th birthday at her favorite place. According to my daughter I'm the best mom! BTW we usually go every year during the school year anyway.

 

[stitchlovestink]

I'm surprised people get trouble taking their kids out in elementary school - they don't really miss all that much... unless it's near state-test time.

But I never had any trouble getting out in high school either. We went the week after the long Thanksgiving weekend, so I would do all my homework over Thanksgiving break, and then turn it in when I got back.

And I was in all Advanced Placement classes too! So as long as you give them notice and ask about homework, they really can't do anything about it.[/QUOTE]

Actually, depending on your district's policy there is something they can do about it. Not give/accept makeup work and the student gets all zeros! Also, depending on how many unexcused absenses you have you could fail the class, no matter what your grade is. Our district has a strict policy and its further compounded by the fact we have block scheduling so missing one day of school is like missing two. While its great that you were able to do it, not all district polices are the same.

bolding is mine...
I'm confused, what kind of block scheduling do you have?
Our H.S. has block scheduling, so the students only have 4 out of 8 classes on any given school day, which means that it really takes 2 school days to miss all of your classes just 1 time. So when we take our DDs out in Nov, they will really only miss each class 2 times even though they will miss a total of 4 days. Kids w/ the flu or any other serious illness miss more than that. And yes, I realize that they could also miss days because one of them gets the flu, but we'll cross that bridge if/when we get to it.

I have teacher friends who feel it's an imposition to ask them to prepare "while you're away" packets for kids taking a vacation. They're a little vengeful, "forgetting" to give vacationing students worksheets that affect their grades, leaving out homework assignments, etc.

It was eye-opening for me to hear them tell me that - I think they should just treat it the same way they handle kids who are out sick. Who knows? Maybe they do the same things to the sickly kids. Either way, it's wrong.
Your best bet is to make friends with another parent/child in the classes and ask for copies of the notes and homework that was missed.

bolding is mine....
I think that that is absolutely TERRIBLE of them! And if it was my friend, I would tell them that to their faces. They are penalizing children for something that they have no control over. It sounds to me like these are some seriously jealous adults who are acting absolutely juvenile. If they do this repeatedly to their students, I don't know that I would want an adult friendship w/ them. Who knows what they may do to an adult who is supposedly a friend. Good Golly, they really need to get a life with a serious set of issues.
My younger DD is excellent about details (older one not so much so ). If she ended up w/ zeros, I would be talking to that teacher and DD and if I didn't get a satisfactory resolution, said teacher would then be meeting w/ me, DD, and school administrator. Most (and I say most) school administrators (at least around here) are slightly more lenient w/ make up work espically with a student with a positive/excellent track record. I think some of it too, is that the administrators (for the most part) don't have the day to day emotional disharmony with Good students, so they really tend to give the good students the BOTD and chalk it up to miscommunication between student/teacher. Teachers, on the other hand, sometimes just don't like a student. Not all teachers, but we've this seen first hand and experienced it first hand a teacher's dislike for a particular student. Might be that the student reminds them of someone else the don't care for. Some teachers handle this dislike very well, while others not so much.
OP, GREAT that everything is going well for your trip! So happy to hear that your school situation will work out perfectly. I hope you have a fabulous trip!!

 

[stitchlovestink]

We have taken our DS out of school several times although not since he has been in HS. We have had good luck with just about all of the teachers but had one bad experience. When he was in 5th grade the teacher did not like that we were going on vacation during the school year and loaded DS up with homework. We had to bring an extra suitcase just for the books and school supplies.

We are fortunate that DS has always been a good student and he started working on his homework on the plane to Orlando. The evening that we arrived we had no plans so we ate at B&C since we were staying at the BC and then went back to the room and he continued to work on homework. We arrived at WDW on Saturday and by Sunday evening DS had spent at least 15 hours on homework without complaining.

Amazing even for a good student. About the time that DW and I were ready to tell him that he had done enough homework and he was on vacation he announced that he was finished.

The longer that he worked on homework the angrier that I got.

I took out my frustration by sending all of the homework to his teacher via UPS overnight on Monday morning. I did not care about the cost I was making a point.

Our trip was in early November and when DS returned to school he basically sat there until after christmas break as he had done all of this work during our vacation.




John

And I would bet money that the teacher didn't have the work graded to give back to him when he returned to school either
I really dislike hypocritical teachers like this. They can dump tons of work on kids giving them NO breaks, but they can take FOREVER to grade assignments because they have 'lives' outside of the classroom. Well, so do the students!
Good for you for making that statement to the teacher. I hate it when teachers screw with kids over something that the kid has no control over. They need to get a real life with a real set of issues.

 

[DisneyFanSince71]

They are there to give our kids an education, that is it!!! I am the child's parent and I will decide when we go on vacation, what she eat, what she wears, and what her morals should be.

We are HUGE on education in our house, but that doesn't mean that school should be allowed to rule my life.

Older dd is in grade 6 this year, with a strict teacher and she is worried about what the teacher will say. She told the class on the first day that if they were to go on vacation they had to take homework with them. Dh and I are still discussing this as I disagree with homework. I feel it is just stuff to keep them busy. They should be learning and practicing in school, that is what I send them there for. I am all for her learning things she missed while away, I would even hire a tutor if I had to, but I am not doing homework just for the sake of doing homework.

We leave in 3.5 weeks so I guess dh and I better work this out soon. LOL

I have no problem telling the teacher that she will not be taking homework with her. I am sorry if our vacation plans interfered with her teaching plans, but what is she going to do with all the kids who miss a week because of swine flu?

If she would like to give me the work that dd doesn't already know and ask me to make sure she learns it, that I don't have a problem with.

I agree with you that the parents should be able to exercise control over their child's education. If a child had an opportunity to go to Europe for 2 weeks should it be denied because they have to go to school and perhaps miss out on an educational experience just as great?

The only fly in the ointment comes from schools when most of the funding comes from the state. The state doesn't want to pay the district if students aren't attending the school. So schools make sure they take attendance so they can qualify for state money.

It is comical because at the end of the year kids are going on field trips, having field days, seeing movies in classes, having parties etc. Not much education going on.

I live in NH where almost all school funding is provided by the town and we don't have many of the rules that you all are describing.

 

[DisneyFanSince71]

In case of blatent unfairness, take things up thru proper channels ( I have a good relationship with teachers, principals and Superintendent). But if you don't get satisfaction you can take it to the board. Kids miss school for all kinds of reasons: Death of relatives, recongnitiion events, athletic contests, field trips, etc. As long as District is consistent then there is not much you can do, but if its just a teacher being spiteful than they will generally back down.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

Funny story--

I anxiously told my daughter's teacher about our vacation last year.

She laughed and said, "see you there".

Yes, she was going the same week!

 

[momejay]

I have to chime in here. I have taken my children out of school for 4-6 days a year for vacations. (not always for Disney) My hint would be to say you are taking a family vacation & get the work ahead of time. We do this every year. The only problems I have run into are teachers that refuse to give the homework or make up their own policy as to no make up work. In my opinion, it is because they are too lazy to figure out in advance what work the student needs.
I sent in letters to all my DD's teachers & asked that her work be in the office by noon on the day I picked her up for our evening flight. One of 6 teachers gave her work & it was for the 2 subjects she had that teacher. (Language Arts & Social Studies) Her Science teacher responded after we left by email stating to have fun.
My DD got a zero on a "pop quiz" given the day of her return. She had completed all her homework for the class, but was taken out of the class for a make up test in another class. The teacher told her not to worry about it as he drops the lowest grade.
Our school's policy is they have as many days as they were out to make up work they missed. For example: child is absent for 4 days then the child has 4days to make up the work.
In Middle School I ran into more uncooperative teachers than rotten policy problems. They refused to give the work & it was hard for DDs to catch up because the work wasn't given. I now have 2 in high school. I will let you know after NJ week how it went. I have already learned that we need a doctor's note to return to school with more than 3 days out. They are missing 4 days. I guess it will say they needed "Mickey time?" LOL!
The schools need to realize that just because the kids are out of school doesn't mean the parents can get out of work at the same time. Family vacations are important too. After paying for camp or daycare during the summer months when there is no school. Who can afford a vacation then?
All work & no play...

 

[myjourney]

My children are all grown now but here was an experience we had many years ago. My friend went to the school to ask if she could take her daughter out for vacation, they said no and were not nice about it. The girl was an A student and did not miss class.

So a few months later we were going to Disney, my daughter was in the same class. So my husband went to tell them he was taking her out for vacation. I expected a fight but when he got home he said they had no problem, have fun. So I ask him what he said, and he said I didn't ask them if I could take her out, I told them I was takimg her out and wanted to notify them out of courtesy. By the way both of them went to the principle not the teacher.